Pleasure to share the pics, Mike, it was a very special few days and quite eerie at times watching Hopkins perform repeating phrases so well known to Campbell enthusiasts. The thrill at the time was seeing the replica out on the lake even though there were some obvious differences, overall though for those of us not old enough to have witnessed the real thing this was a great chance to get a feel of those times.

FYI the DC7 number plate is on a dark blue Aston Martin convertible. I used to see it weekly driving around the Harpenden/Bovingdon area. Last saw it about 2 months ago. Middle aged blonde driving

Re Across The Lake, I bought the Australian release VHS as it is about 10 mins longer than the version shown by the BBc. I tried contacting many about getting it released, last response i had from BFI was it's never going to be released. I even know someone who contacted Anthony Hopkins management to see if he could help & they couldn't do anything either.

Theres a massive bunch of red tape surrounding this movie-I tried for years to find the actual owner of the film-which ostensibly is the Director but the ownership is mired in cross claims and half truths-even offering to buy the intellectual ownership of the movie was not possible-no one is claiming ownership-most of the problem being once the movie is made and released the production company normally is liquidated and the intellectual rights are transferred to a third party-which in this case does not seem to have happened.

It's a shame really- we could easily author up a DVD with the film and some nice extras (behind the scenes gallery, Blue Peter clip etc) to make a package out of it to benefit the boat- I even made myself a rough cover for it to match the BBP stuff at one point-

ATL3D.jpg

-but who'd want to take the risk? I'd sooner have the clear conscience I think!

You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.

As this film has been available through many unofficial Videos, DVD's & downloads for MANY YEARS it is easily arguable that it is now "in the public domain" & is therefore unlikely to have the original copyright upheld. Add to this the apparent confusion about who actually owns the rights & it just strengthens this position.

The problem however lies in the fact that this has not been tested in court, therefore anyone offering pirate copies is potentially liable to prosecution.

The sad fact is that there are many people who would love to see Across the lake & any associated extras, as well as other rare DC footage, but those people who have copies of their own would rather sit on them than share them freely with other enthusiasts.

Re ATL, there are indeed many people selling it online and it's also easily available to download for free if you know how; there's certainly no reason that anyone who wants a copy, can't get one. You would think that if anyone was going to protest, it would have happened a long time ago, but I bet that if an established body such as The Bluebird Project for example started selling it, even just towards the rebuild of the boat, then someone would take notice! So it's probably just not worth the bother, and we don't encourage discussion of how/where to get it on here.